Need suggestions to spice up a Father/Son Golf tournament

A little background, some buddies and I have played a Father/Son golf tournament at the end of the summer for the past 10-15 years. Winners get a big trophy that they hang on to for the year, as well as the money($20-30/player). 2nd and 3rd take home their share as well. Teams are made of father and son pairings, or "surrogate" father's and/or father in law's if a dad has more than one son in our group(or if a dad can't make it). The tournament is handicapped(there is a long spreadsheet with 15 years of scores on it so that kind of takes care of itself). Here's where I'm looking for suggestions...

The guy that was in charge of it recently gave up his role to me due to his son getting more serious about baseball. The format for the event is team low ball on the front and scramble on the back. In the past it was just $20-30/man into the pot and divide it up at the end. The past 2-3 years we've added a closest to the hole or 2 on par 3's. That's pretty much been the only addition in the 15 year history. The past few years I've noticed that the tournament has gotten a bit stale, and teams have started to stay at home and not play. Obviously some of that could be health related or just simply having other obligations on that particular date. Regardless, I'd like to toss out some ideas to the field for new additions to the format to kind of spice things up and breathe some life back into it. Any suggestions?

Side skins game always makes it more interesting on the day.

Raffle tickets at the 19th hole for prizes could help too.

Instead of a best-ball 9 and a scramble 9, you could change it to a best ball 6, a scramble 6, and an alternate shot 6. In the alternate shot there are ways to help offset handicap differences, like both teeing off and alternating from their choice, or having the option on every tee which can hit the tee shot. The challenge of the alternate shot does make the game freshly different.

I've played a few times in a similar tournament as a sub as a "son" for a guy who is like my 2nd father. Each year, there's 16-20 guys that play. They set the cap on teams at 10 total - 2 man teams. It's over the course of 3 days. The day we arrive, we plan an afternoon 18, then 36 holes the following 2 days. The buy in is $25 per man per round and an additional $15 for skins. So, grand total could be $40 per man per round, if you get into the skins game.

The round breakdown is as follows:
Day 1 = low ball
Day 2 - Round 1 = low ball
Day 2 - Round 2 = scramble
Day 3 - Round 1 = team total ball
Day 3 - Round 2 = scramble

There is a pay out for the Top 3 teams after each round. After the final round, ONLY the winning team gets the winnings and the trophies. The catch on the skins game is, they ONLY pay out after all rounds, not per round. The skins get pretty nice, lol. The scramble rounds are not involved in skins, but will usually throw $10 per man into a closest to the pin pot.

Also, going into the final day, we usually get guys on teams who aren't in contention betting money against other teams as to who they think will win it all. Kind of a calcutta style deal.

I think a fun spin could be the worst ball we do in my work league for one hole during our scramble.

So basically the opposite of best ball. Each hit two shots and you have to play the worst one. One year we had a guy hole out from the bunker and his partner didn't make it out so they played from the bunker again. A lot of people take the double par limit on that hole


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One thing I have seen in my Saturday group adds a whole new dimension to our round and makes it interesting.

We have introduced a ball we call the "snitch" it becomes the ball that the team score is based on. This ball is usually not of the best quality and should be marked so it can be easily identified (yellow, pink, blue, orange w/sharpie markings). A team cannot win if the "snitch" is lost during the round. The "snitch" must be alternated between players each hole. It will make players a little more stressed on shots that could lose the snitch.

Some version of this would make it a little different.

I played in a scramble once where each got had chance to buy a mulligan card. Also, you could buy a pick it up and throw it card. We liked that one, made it very fun bc the throwing act didn't count as a stroke so if you hit a nice drive, pick it up and throw it after, you could be looking at driving some par five greens. Also, I've done one tourney where you could buy an ace on par three hole. Must of those tings were charity events though with the focus on making money for the benefactor.

Maybe for a couple holes have it so you have to take the fathers drive on one, and the sons on the other?

Strippers.